Note: Powerpoint presentations referred to in these minutes may be accessed on the Council’s website at http://water.usgs.gov/wicp/acwi/monitoring. Attachments identified in these notes are available in hard copy by request only.
OPENING
Chuck Spooner opened the meeting and there were round the table introductions
of members and guests. The Council will be very busy during the next few
months—working on 2006 National Monitoring Conference and the National
Monitoring Network (NMN) Project. This meeting here in Annapolis is essentially
a working meeting and will not have the normal amount of presentations from
other groups interested in water quality and monitoring but will have some
short overviews of programs from our guests.
UPDATE ON 2006 NATIONAL MONITORING CONFERENCE
Jeff Schloss gave update on progress of NMC. Conference quad chairs are Chuck
Spooner, Dave Tucker, Jeff Schloss, and Linda Green. The CPC has been conducting
monthly teleconferences, signed contracts for hotel rooms; the contract with
San Jose Convention Center will close soon; Hold the Date flyer has been
sent to listservs and printed for distribution. We are securing sponsorships-USDA,
AMSA and will begin financial preparations/analysis for registration fee;
as well as organizing committee structure—who can and will help. Conference
structure starts on Sunday with registration and field trips; Monday will
have workshops, both full and half day, volunteer monitoring, EPA, and USGS
will have short courses, wetlands, wadeable streams. (See pp presentation.)
Thinking of dispersing workshops throughout the sessions with no extra cost.
Workshop ideas come from NAWQA Volunteer Monitoring, and NMN. Jeff described
conference structure. Field trips to Monterey Aquarium; the Tech Museum of
Innovation; Roaring Camp Railroad offers train trips into the Redwoods on
an authentic logging railroad and also offers BBQ’s; speakers—possibly
Governor Arnold Schwarzenager or his wife, Maria Schriver or the Environmental
Protection Secretary of California. University of California at Berkeley
will hold a workshop on statistics; Clean Water Team Citizen Monitoring Program
will hold their Train the Trainer workshop; professional and volunteer monitoring
workshop. Organizational support was outlined--Tetratech, NALMS, City of
San Jose. We hope to have the Call for Papers worked out after this working
meeting. We need to contact additional vendors; if you have contacts with
various vendors, please let us know. Council Work Groups should give us suggestions
for Themes and Workshops. Please distributeHold the Date Flyer as you go
to meetings. Let Judy Griffin know what listserves you are sending electronic
announcement. Distributed “Hold the Date” flyer (Attachment 1).
Garth Redfield suggested that we present information about the NMN to stimulate
conversation and suggestions. We need to focus more on the Network and to
get conference participants excited about what we are doing. This can be
a tract or a theme running throughout the conference. We would like to have
a member from the NMN join the Conference Planning Committee. David Denig
Chakroff will host the Elizabeth J. Fellows Award presentation at the conference
and is the Chair for the EJF Award committee.
UPDATE ON NATIONAL MONITORING NETWORK PROJECT
Distributed handouts from Gail Mallard--Objectives of the NMN, and A National
Water Quality Monitoring Network for U.S. Coastal Oceans and their Watersheds.
(Attachments 2 and 3). Gail said that after we accepted the charge that the
Advisory Committee on Water Information (ACWI) members were very supportive
and approved the charge from the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ).
We had 29 votes and couple of groups made comments about existing monitoring,
and only one group refrained from a positive response. (Association of State
Drinking Water Administrators (SDWA) gave the negative comment.) Their fears
are not uncommon in their utilities about being asked to do additional monitoring.
One other group expressed some of the same concerns but went ahead and approved.
If you want to see a copy of the letter from SDWA, it is available said Toni
Johnson. CEQ is a presidential group. The ACWI is chartered under the OMB;
its executive secretary is within the USGS and chair is the Department of
the Interior (DOI). ACWI is an advisory committee for all Federal water related
agencies. The charge came from CEQ and National Science Technology Committee
(see pp presentation). The charge was to define elements of the network and
corresponding management questions; describe how recommended network addresses
important issues. Case studies are Mississippi, Pacific Northwest, Gulf of
Maine, and Chesapeake Bay. We embraced these things in our deliverables to
meet our charge. We need to develop design of NMN based on what is needed
to address issues and questions; where to monitor, what to monitor for; frequency
of monitoring; metadata needed. Use the inventory of local and state efforts
in this national effort; focus on case study areas makes it more approachable;
compare design with actual ongoing monitoring; identify gaps and causes of
gaps; recommend actions to fill gaps. Timeline is:
We need to flesh out this timeline during this meeting. NMN Steering Committee members are Brass, Caffrey, Cox, Currier, Dycus, Hameedi, Johnson, Leslie, Mallard, Spooner, Tennant, and Vowinkel; We conduct weekly conference calls. A critical decision was made that NMN/SC would be Council members. We are greatly reaching out to our monitoring groups to join the NMN Work Groups. First critical thing was developing the objectives for the NMN and provide data relevant to determining whether goals, standards, and resource management objectives are being met, thus promoting sustainable and beneficial use of coastal and inland water resources. A question was asked if the data provided is in a common data base. Gail indicated that we have not gotten into that point yet. Whether it is several databases linked is not yet determined. (See pp presentation for complete details.) Three work groups have been commissioned to date; Design group chaired by Al Korndoerfer with 25 members; Inventory work group chaired by Chuck Spooner; Methods and Data Comparability Work Group chaired by Herb Brass and Eric Vowinkel, and we will hear from these groups. Data Management group will be formed.
Elaine Koerner, Good Neighbor Environmental Board
Elaine distributed annual report for the GNEB. (Attachment 4) The GNEB is an
EPA Federal Advisory Committee, for the U.S./Mexican Border. Elaine urged
consideration of special conditions and data gap challenges for water quality
monitoring along the US-Mexico border. Let Elaine know if any of you are
working along the border. Next Meeting of the GNEB will take place in Washington,
DC, May 10-11, 2005.
David Wunsch, American Association of State Geologists
David Wunsch, New Hampshire State Geologist, and new Council member, reported
on
water conference by Dominici and Bingamen. Call for proposals on major water
issues and ideas to solve them (planned in support of proposed legislation).
The Federal representatives were there to answer questions-- USGS, Bureau of
Reclamation, Department of Energy. Recorded and into Congressional record.
Many recommendations, common themes. Put funds into cooperative projects with
states, local governments, local watershed groups; giving states more control
(e.g., state cooperative mapping program widespread support in Congress - funds
come from USGS to states and states decide where to place money and then share
data back to USGS National database.
There is a need for a clearinghouse, especially for ground water data--how
to share more efficiently. Diminished funding of Federal and states critical.
Discussed Dominici’s bill for transboundary water issues. They think
this is the time for water legislation. Water shortages and problems not just
restricted to arid southwest – key problems in New Jersey as well.
Robert Kent, National Water Research Institute, Environment Canada
Rob gave
overview of activities—NMN objectives are similar to what is being done
in Canada. Rob’s job was to establish a national water quality monitoring
network in Canada. It is a mixture of provincial, federal, etc. as to designation
of responsibilities. Key thrusts over this decade are to establish an operational
network with territories, communities, including agricultural water quality,
recreational water quality, wadeable streams approach. They are preparing an
annual report on state of water quality in Canada. This is coming up this November
2005—first time it has been done in Canada. This will be a report to
parlimentarians. Rob would like to talk to anyone here who reports to Congress.
They are quite proud of developments in web-based information. Rob distributed
the brochure, Reseau, (Attachment 5). They will be studying pesticides over
a three-year period as well as pathogens over the next three years. They want
to answer questions that the public asks—is water drinkable, fishable,
swimmable, etc. .
Steve Preston, Chesapeake Bay Program
Steve Preston is Monitoring Coordinator for the Chesapeake Bay Program, and
with the USGS. Main impacts to the Chesapeake Bay are impairments: There
are a variety of ecological impacts (See pp presentation.) Program will get
idea of status of waters throughout the Bay; temporal changes; long term
trends; tidal water quality modeling, and understanding of processes related
to attainment of water quality criteria and other restoration goals. Goal
was to create a Chesapeake Bay water monitoring data collection. Bay Program
sponsored by EPA but includes partners of Federal agencies (USGS, NOAA, Park
Service and others), states, and Chesapeake Bay Commission. We try to work
with all those groups to funnel the work in one direction.
Paul Currier, Gulf of Maine
Paul reported that there is much activity in the last 10 years. Charge is sustainability
in the Gulf of Maine, New Hampshire, New Brunswich, and Nova Scotia. The
Council works on concerns of common interests through a five-year action
plan. Monitoring is a major activity. Lots of opportunities for case studies.
Working group does the day-to-day work (Paul a member). Sewage, toxics, nutrients,
nature-based sustainable tourism activity. Monitoring a significant part.
Spinoff is Gulf of Maine (GOM) Ocean Data Partnership. For two years, voluntary
organizations collecting water quality data among GOM and its watershed.
Focus is (like Pacific Northwest) datasharing XML protocols and agreements.
Jawed Hameedi , Delaware Bay
Water quality and water quantity forecasting; need to do freshwater forecasting.
OMB and Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) –need for water
quality forecastingNOAA planning/funding a meeting at Rutgers sometime before
end of September to discuss NMN linkages to IOOS. Hopefully get a report
out in about October, 2005. Likely to provide report to CEQ.
Dave Wangsness,NAWQA
Dave Wangsness, USGS, reported for Donna Myers, NAWQA. Three reports were recently
put together in late February (for Congressiosnal Briefings completed with
WEF and EESI)--Monitoring in the 21st Century, Moving from Monitoring to
Prediction; and The Quality of the Nation’s Ground Water (Attachments
5, 6, and 7) all our VOC data and those reports will be coming out in the
next few months. Mike McDonald suggested that we use some of ideas from three
fact sheets. The one on Monitoring in the 21st Century is excellent, and
NMN Steering Committee should review it for NMN input.
Susan Holtsworth, Wadeable Streams, EPA
Susan gave overview and distributed fact sheet on Wadeable Streams “Probability-based
Design for Selecting Sampling Sites” (Attachment 8) as well as fact sheet
on “Measuring Physical Habitat in Streams” (Attachment 9). Westerns
states doing statistical sampling on Wadeable Streams for some time. Now carried
to central and eastern United States. Focus on Benthic Macroinvertebrates and
Basic Chemistry and Quantitative Habitat Assessment. Data reconciliation in
process, final dataset available in the next 4-5 weeks. National report due
by December 2005. Wadeable Streams and ESA methods going on for last few years,
but no summary or conclusions from comparisons yet. Data will be migrated to
STORET on line by fall-winter. All regions. Western data on EMAP website, near
future. Comes up after two years. Measure of wadeable streams include some
basic chemistry, sediment; mostly condition of macroinvertebrate communities,
nutrients and habitat. Looking at Benchmark conditions for nutrients.
Pedro Restrepo, National Weather Service, Office of Hydrologic Development.
Discussed white paper on Forecasting Water Quality and. asked for assistance
from USGS and EPA. Jerad Bales, wrote about 80% of report, and EPA about
20%. Comments from NOAA line offices, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, still
no word from EPA. Paper will be published after review, but not sequestered,
can be distributed as a draft white paper. Clear understanding that they
cannot do water quantity forecasting without water quality forecasting, due
to contaminants. Long term forecasting done with Natural Resources Conservation
Service on water supply, and now want to do long-term water-quality forecasting.
NWS does river flow forecasting closely with USGS observations. Joint EPA/NOAA
meeting 2 weeks ago on atmospheric forecasts.
Pedro
Restrepo requested comments on Draft White Paper “Forecasting Surface Water-Quality
Conditions for the U.S.” Comments are requested by May 31 to Pedro.
UPDATES ON NMN WORKGROUPS
NMN DESIGN WORK GROUP
Gail Mallard gave report for Al Korndoerfer, Chair of Design Work Group, who
could not attend this meeting. (See pp presentation) There are 25 members
on this work group. Design work group had big role in listing out our goals
for the NMN. Working with management issues--there is list from chapter 15
of the report important in marine as well as freshwater environment. How
do those issues drive the kind of network to be designed? Identify the issue—things
that cause the issues-- primary and secondary effects. Design Work Group
had a big role in helping to flesh out those 5 objectives outlined by NMN
Steering Committee. LA State University folks central actors on GOM Hypoxia
issue.
NMN INVENTORY WORK GROUP
Chuck Spooner reported for the Inventory Work Group that has about 16 members.
Effort is to define existing state of affairs. (see pp presentation) Goal:
Inventory existing monitoring to allow steering committee to lay the groundwork
for addressing other issues: A process of affiliation with the Network and
future reports of the Network’s status. Ideal inventory covers monitoring
that spans freshwater, coastal, and marine resources. Structured to cover
four dimensions; ownership, location, content and timing; procedures and
approach-- find monitoring programs; ownership, location, procedures, and
by content. Registry of Monitoring Programs will be a feature of the new
Network called for by GAO. GAO Report called for a way to inventory and track
ongoing and planned monitoring.
NMN METHODS AND DATA COMPARABILITY WORK GROUP
Herb Brass reported. (see pp presentation) Described work of methods and data
comparability. There is need for methods and data comparability and how that
leads to information sharing. What questions are we asking????? Not one size
fits all.
Methods Board already has a lot of material that will fit into NMN Report, Chapter 5.
OPEN DIALOG REGARDING INTEGRATION OF NMN ISSUES INTO NATIONAL MONITORING
CONFERENCE
There was an open discussion with members voicing concerns on proposed announcement
of NMN at the 2006 National Monitoring Conference; management questions as
to monitoring needs.
Issues:
Gail indicated that we have to get a handle on management questions. Important is priority-- what we understand and how many do we want to tackle? Is it the list in Chapter 15? Pull and tug between all data are important vs making them useful in the larger context; how the framework is used and reflected in the report for the NMN. We need to tackle these issues over the next day and a half.
WORK GROUP MEETINGS
Conference Planning Committee and NMN Work Groups met separately for meetings
and conference calls on Wednesday, April 13, 2005. (Access the NMN news posted
on Council website at http://water.usgs.gov/wicp/acwi/monitoring/network/index.html.)
COUNCIL BUSINESS MEETING
WORK GROUP REPORTS
Collaboration and Outreach Work Group
Jim Laine reported for the C&O Work Group. (See pp presentation.) Valerie
Connor will accept a co-chair position on the C&O Work Group after the
2006 conference. Discussion of workshop of building and sustaining state councils
with focus on funding.
We will redo regional/state councils inquiry to send out through
Regional Monitoring Coordinators and/or USGS District Offices and have information
back by the July meeting. (Linda Green and Jim Laine)
Prepare letter of support for Councils to go with Survey. (Toni
Johnson and Chuck Spooner)
Mary Ambrose (with help
from Margo Andrews) to create Fact Sheet for Watershed Components Interactions
Work Group. (Mary Ambrose)
Before the conference, work
groups are asked to review their Work Group Fact Sheets for edits to be made
prior to the 2006 conference. (Work
Group Chairs)
There is question of obtaining a domain for conference website. Right now, getting to the conference website goes through Ground Water Protection Council (GWPC).
Request GWPC to turn over the address www.nwqmc.org to USGS.
(Judy Griffin)
David Wunsch and Carl Lucero will review the website for comments
on structure and content. Work Groups also have been requested to look at website
for comments. (David Wunsch, Carl Lucero, Work Group Chairs)
Create something more obvious
on website for 2006 conference—flashing
banner, something to attract attention. (Judy Griffin)
Get status on states organizing
a new state council. Margo Andrews, Tetratech, will assist C&O Work Group
in developing a packet on startup of State/Regional Councils. (Margo Andrews,
Linda Green,
Jim Laine)
Conference Planning Committee
Jeff Schloss reported on conference structure for 2006 Conference in San Jose,
CA, May 7-11, 2006. (See pp presentation.) There will be extended times for
breaks and viewing posters. Authors of posters will be expected to be with
their posters for questions during this expanded break time. (Tuesday and
Wednesday) Closing plenary will be 12-1:30 p.m. Key Themes are:
Need Council to respond on vendors to be contacted; sponsorhip opportunitiess ($1K, $5K,and $10K) for help with reception and scholarship. Looking for work group suggestions for themes and workshops. Also need work group representatives for abstract review and NMN contact. David Denig-Chakroff will chair the Elizabeth J. Fellows (EJF) Award committee and needs members for this committee. We will need to decide by the November meeting the choice for the award. The award will be presented at the Monday plenary. Questions will be taken after each session presentation; there will also be a few minutes at the end of session for additional or followup questions. Scholarships for attendance for volunteer monitors. There will also be a certain number of complementary rooms at the hotels. We are looking for student and tribal scholarships. We need to push registration fees to cover extra meals that will be at this conference. Forty percent of the people attending the past conference made presentations. Call for Papers will go out by late May. Conference website must be up and running before this can be accomplished. We are expecting 500-600 attendees with the addition of NAWQA and Volunteer Monitoring sessions. There will be no report backs from Council Work Groups at this conference. Rooms can be set aside for impromptu group meetings. We would also like volunteers to read abstracts. Eric Vowinkel volunteered to be a Moderator. Chuck said that he would strongly encourage EPA Region 9 to be involved in this conference as they are located in the San Jose area.
Jeff Schloss will send out
Word document with conference themes/subthemes. Call for Abstracts to be
issued soon; formal cutoff date is September 15; final
selection of abstracts will be completed at November Council meeting. Abstract
acceptances to be sent out in December. (Jeff Schloss/CPC)
Followup with Eileen O’Neill,
Water Environment Federation, re special workshop/training session at 2006
Conference. (Toni
Johnson)
Water Information Strategies Work Group
Robert Ward reported. Requested that Diane Regas and Robert Hirsch be contacted
for full update as to where we are on MOU between EPA and USGS at the summer
meeting. The NMN recommends the creation of a data management work group.
It would be helpful to discern and get on top of those issues. Curtis Cude
gave update on National Environmental Information Exchange Network-related
issues. Discussed update on the NMN Steering Committee subgroup including
data analysis and reporting. Issues relevant to the subgroup are what are
successful products relating to how data are gathered? Who will oversee products
of the NMN? Suggestions for 2006 National Conference. Update on last conference’s
Information Exchange session—as the design gets started for the NMN
as to the new national database strategy. Discussed international session
in which we have people from other countries describe how they did design
of NMN. Talked about having a session in which we look at educating future
professionals in national monitoring. Robert can give a curriculum that has
been vetted by professionals—how to move into monitoring. Funding long-term
monitoring networks--How do managers keep funding for monitoring? How are
we doing—if we are producing monitoring—how do we report our
results? Discussed the role of peer review in national water quality monitoring.
Watershed Components Interactions Work Group
Chris Knopp reported. They have approved a fact sheet that was previously written.
The group discussed what we are going to do for the web site and how to contribute
to the Conference. Spent a fair amount of time on site examples to illustrate.
Discussed website to decide what the site should provide; repository of values
for some of these components or linkages. Should not be a depository but
directory of links for major areas; current writeups from conference. Did
not close on how to provide to the conference but working on that aspect.
The WCI Work Group will have a conference call soon to decide on issues for
conference.
Methods and Data Comparability Board
Eric Vowinkel reported. Meeting was held in March in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Most work groups have work plans completed. Discussed Board involvement in
NMN. Ed Johnson, NOAA, will be work group chair for NMN. Discussed Wadeable
Streams and will work on comparability of data. Discussed WQDEs led by Leanne
Astin and guide to be approved by ACWI. Want to make this available on the
web. NEMI is headed by Dan Sullivan. Developing a CRADA to keep NEMI going.
Hopefully developing a CRADA between EPA and USGS and a private sector company.
Hach is interested in participating in the CRADA. Franceska Wilde, USGS,
is playing major role for the Field Activities Committee. NEMI CBR and expert
system to be released this summer. Updating internal and public web pages.
Draft newsletter to be published in June/July highlighting work groups, conference,
and NMN planning
Input on NMN for Board Newsletter.
(NMN Steering Committee)
Group will work on special edition of American Water Resources Association (AWWA) IMPACT magazine to focus on methods and data comparability after 2006 National Monitoring Conference. They will update the Board’s delegate lists—lots of new people to highlight and know that they are appreciated. New work group members will help with external communications. Ed Santoro is initiating pilot for evaluation of Nitrate Reductase method for nitrate determination. (see pp presentation)
NMN Steering Committee
Gail Mallard discussed results of conference calls among the three work groups—methods
and data comparability; design, and inventory. She indicated and described
on the flipcharts a schematic outline of a national network and indicated stations
maintained by Federal agencies, universities, and states and geographic/constiuent
gaps. There was a discussion among members regarding the design thus far.
NMN Inventory Work Group
Chuck Spooner reported. Trying to find the monitoring programs to inventory,
using techniques to find monitoring programs and to describe them. Objective
5.--Deliver data, interpretive reports, and educational materials to improve
public awareness and participation in stewardship of the coastal environment
and resources.
UPCOMING MEETINGS
Proposed scheduled meetings are:
Judy Griffin reported on negotiations for summer meeting. We have received proposal from the New England Conference Center, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, that meets government per diem standards. Contract negotiations are underway with the Conference Center for the week of July 25. The full Council will meet July 26-28, 2005. Formal announcement and explicit directions for making travel arrangements will be sent out by early May.
The date for the fall Council meeting will be the week of Oct 31 – November 3, 2005. This date was set to meet needs of the Conference Planning Committee who will have completed first rounds of abstract review. Final review of abstracts needs to be completed in November to meet deadline of December 1 for abstract approvals. This earlier date for a fall/winter meeting also will give the NMN work groups time for finalizing report due in January to CEQ. We requested that members volunteer to host meeting if they could offer the meeting space required. Several members volunteered to check into meeting space at their facilities—Indianapolis, Pensacola, Cincinatti, and Atlanta were suggested. As soon as we can confirm a meeting site, members will be notified. Also see Council’s Scheduled Meetings on website at http://water.usgs.gov/wicp/upcom.html to check on meeting dates.
Judith B. Griffin
Executive Secretary
Attendees:
Robert Ward
Dan Radulescu
Paul Currier
David Denig-Chakroff
Chris Knopp
Mary Ambrose
Jim Cox
Curtis Cude
David Tucker
Herb Brass
Ami Mitchell
Michael McDonald
David Wunsch
Fred Leslie
Toni Johnson
Judy Griffin
Art Garceau
Gail Mallard
Chuck Spooner
Garth Redfield
Linda Green
Don Dycus
Jim Laine
Valerie Connor
Carl Lucero
Russell Callender
Jawed Hameedi
Peter Tennant
Jeff Schloss
Eric Vowinkel
Guests:
Peter Grevatt, EPA
Elaine Koerner EPA, Good Neighbor Advisory Board
Emery Cleaves, MD Geological Survey
Steve Preston, Chesapeake Bay Program
Jerry Diamond, Tetratech
Marjorie Ernst, NOAA
Guests (continued)
Pedro Restrepo, NOAA/NWS
Dave Shepp, USACOE
Margo Andrews, Tetratech
Ed Santoro, Delaware River Basin
Rob Schweinfurth, WEF
Abby Markowitz, Tetratech
Susan Holtsworth, EPA
Dave Wangness, NAWQA
Jay Sauber, NC Division of Water Quality
Robert Kent, Environment Canada
Paul Jacobson, MD Water Monitoring Council
Jerad Bales, USGS
Ed Johnson, NOAA
U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological
Survey
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